UK in/out referendum on the EU (Brexit vs Bremain)

they realise they might be responsible for the break-up of the UK. the rats are leaving the sinking ship.

{{ May has withdrawn her withdrawal bill- now saying it wont go to the House tomorrow as planned, but after the recess (why with all this going on are they still sodding off on hols?!   )  which means 1st week in June before it even comes to the House, if it comes.
She says she is listening to her party which means I'd guess she will remove all reference to any possible 2nd referendum.
Somehow she is still clinging on in there.
Will be interesting to see how the results of the European Parliament elections play out on this.}}

its unbelievable, British Steel has gone bust and thousands of people are worried sick about paying their mortgage next month, and this lot swan off on holiday, don't they realise we are in the middle of a crisis? its insult to injury. Most of them are not involved with British Steel but its symbolic of the lack of empathy. Their constituents are starving in Dickensian conditions according to the UN report, but the right wing MPs don't give a monkeys, they are more interested in fighting for the leadership job.

The day the Tories get their just deserts is the day karma finally bites their arses, and it cant come soon enough. The thought of May and her minions giving Trump the 5 star welcome makes me sick, have they no pride left. I can just imagine that evil toad Farage gloating and preening while dining with his best mate Donald. ffs.

Britain is losing bits left right and centre, we just lost some more illegally obtained colonialist territory called the Chagos islands.

Mrs Figg wrote: The thought of May and her minions giving Trump the 5 star welcome makes me sick, have they no pride left.

Our President isn't having very much fun over here right now either, so I suppose that's why he's decided to take a holiday of his own to the UK at this time.
You may have to remind him to come home....

oh I think he will get plenty of reminders.

If Trump has any brains at all he will know exactly whats going wrong with this country, as I am sure every bloody country can see whats going wrong with this country. We are blinkered & foolish to think its either well hidden or the other countries don't know. I think to gage how low we are sinking you start by looking at the activities & pursuits of people. If profits from shops are going down not up its a sign. If shops are closing down & empty, Building societies are vanishing or merging, factories laying off staff, Less tickets at theatres, cinema, pubs going quiet, Holiday firms see less travellers, people getting chubbier & lethargic. Pride diminishing, streets scruffier & full of rubbish, the sale of biscuits going thru the roof then you can ring the alarm bell. The atmosphere in my town is heavy with oppression, misery & worry. Hardly any smiles, cheerful banter or a good morning wave. More shops empty now than open & in business. People look like they've given up & it feels like it too.

{{ May's time is up! She just announced she is standing down on the 7th of June and will stay on during the leadership contest then step aside. }}

{{ Ever get the feeling history is just repeating?

"We will leave the EU on October 31, deal or no deal. The way to get a good deal is to prepare for a no deal.”- Tory Leadership front runner, Boris Johnson

Appropriate that it falls on All Hallows Eve. As for Boris being the next PM ? what will be will be & we shall see what we shall see & deal with it then.

Watching her weep for herself was quite grotesque. Bet she didn't weep for the 80 year old pensioner who jumped off a cliff because her pension had been stopped. Bet she didn't weep for the Windrush people being deported, or the grandmother who had lived in the UK for 30 years with an English husband and kids as she was bundled on to an airplane with 20p in her pocket. She betrayed the sick and poor, the hungry children, she betrayed the 'JAMS', she added more fuel to the burning injustices, she was an arrogant callous tory and I say bye bye to bad rubbish.

Right on Figgy !!

I wonder if she will ever come to her hometown, just to look at the shops ( if weve any left ) to see the desperation she & her cronies caused ? Be odd seeing her trot round, especially as now she will definitely be recognised !

The trouble is the next one will be just as bad if not worse.

{{ The Tories seem to be operating entirely within a bubble at the moment. There's a load of them running, too many to be worth listing at this point, once its been whittled down and the final list put to the party faithful it will be clearer. But the battle lines are clear- on one side your Boris and your Goves and such, your Brexiteers who say come what will, on the 31st of October we leave, deal or no deal. And the not at all likely to win, Remainer Tories, who simply dont have the numbers to get in but will probably get at least one of them on the ballot.

Problem is Brussels is in no mood to renegotiate, has no intention of doing so and it would be almost impossible to do even do if they wanted to by the October 31st deadline.
This means effectively Boris and co are standing for No Deal.
Which the House has made clear in several votes there is no majority for either.
A hard Brexit Tory PM would be no more able to get the remainers to vote for it than MAy could get the brexiteers to vote for hers. There is no chance of a No Deal passing the House.
Which is why I say they are operating in their own little bubble- its as if they think just electing Boris or his like means the EU will crumble, give him all he wants and we will be out with a deal by the end of October- and its just a nonsense. Pure fantasy. }}

{{ The votes are in for the Uk's EU elections. And they are very interesting and show an utterly divided country.

So first lets deal with England, as they voted us into this mess in the first place- there is only one winner here and thats sadly Farages newly formed Brexit Party, making a pretty clean weep overall. Taking 28 so far of the available 64 seats.
So Brexit has the support of the people? Well not so fast as second place are the lib dems- a staunch Remain party and advocates of a 2nd vote. The lib dems are on 15 seats so far with Labour coming in 4th behind the Greens on 10 seats. Meaning Brexit is the biggest party but the next 3 are all remain.
And the Tories? They got hammered with only 3 seats. If it had been a first past the post election like most Westminster elections they would not have got anything.



So the position is one of division across England and Wales.

Scotland is a whole other story. Not so much division here and more a clear message. The Brexit Party did improve on the position UKIP formally managed, improving enough to nab a single seat and get about 14% of the vote. However the SNP have dominated, increasing their share of the vote to nearly 40%



Labour are the worst hit in Scotland, coming in 5th behind the Tories. That's two elections in a row where the Tories have been more appetising to Scotland than Labour have! (I think Ruth Davidson should get some credit there as she comes across as both more competent than the Labour leadership and than the Tories at Westminster and more likeable and human.

But I think the stark divide in the UK between England and Scotland is best shown by the following map.



Something has to give eventually.

Interestingly if you add up all the Remain leaning votes and all the pro-Brexit votes you get the following result-



Despite what you will hear incessantly from Farage in the coming days this indicates UK wide there is a 10% approx more in favour of Remain than Leave on these results. }}
}}

this is excellent news, remain is a clear winner and if this result gets through to Corbyn's thick head at last, remain could win large at the next referendum, despite the toad farage.

{{Sadly Figg thats not how the Tories are reading this- all they can see is the same fear they saw when Farage led UKIP- loss of their seats and power in their heartlands. So they have to match Farage at least.
Just about every Tory contender has come out saying this election proves they have to deliver Brexit on October 31st even if there is no deal.

And amazingly Corbyn in interviews is still hedging his bets, trying to please all sides at once. He's learned nothing, but his party may have as they are pretty damn angry with him that he diodnt have a clear position of a 2nd referendum. Especially in Scotland where the Labour MEP's who lost their seats were damning-

"It is official Labour Party policy to support a People's Vote as a way out of this catastrophic mess, yet Jeremy Corbyn snubbed our membership and refused to embrace it. As a result he personally handed victory to Nigel Farage.
As the hard right rises and the Tories tear themselves apart, Jeremy is squandering the opportunity to deliver a radical reforming government that so many millions of people urgently need."}}

Listening to the politicians of the main parties speak after the council and EU elections makes me want to set them on fire!

Corbyn needs to go... I don't know why I or anyone would ever vote for him as I just don't understand what he stands for.

The Tories are sticking to "Brexit means Brexit" even though nobody knows what the first or second instance if Brexit in that sentence actually means AND they seem to not be treating the Remain parties with contempt even though that is clearly where a huge amount of voters have gone.

Farage is being Farage and stoking the fire of division while.l playing the Tories like a bunch of amateurs.

Sturgeon is trying to push IndyRef2 again even though it seems like this is the last thing Scotland wants right now, regardless of the EU situation. I think we are all stick of this bullshit and want a break for a little while.

All in all the country is a shambles. I cant wait for the Tory leadership contest over the next couple of months. I think Teresa was misguided but I dont think she is an utter moron like Boris or Gove.

At least we still have Trump over the pond to deflect attention.

Lancebloke wrote: At least we still have Trump over the pond to deflect attention.

Not for long Lance. We'll be sending him your way in less than a week.

Sturgeon is trying to push IndyRef2 again even though it seems like this is the last thing Scotland wants right now- Lance

{{I would not be too sure there. I get the general sense that the worse things get at Westminster, and the more likely it becomes the Tories will end up with a Gove or Boris for PM the more likely the push for Independence will grow from the grass roots.

The SNP are well within their rights to ask for another referendum within this Scottish Parliament. They were elected on a clear mandate to do so if the circumstances of the 'deal' agreed post referendum substantially altered, citing being forced out the EU against the will of the people as a prime example of such a change. That has happened.
And remember we were sold to vote for the Union last time on the strongly made argument that the only way to ensure Scotland's continued membership of the EU was to vote for the Union- that a vote for independence would see us thrown out of the EU. Only a vote for Union could guarantee membership for Scotland. That was a lie. A vote for Union turned out to mean the exact opposite.

And after all this time in power here we have the SNP on a crucial constitutional mater, Brexit, still increasing their share of the vote. They got a higher share of the vote than any other party in the UK, including the Brexit party. That's not to be sneezed at or ignored, its a substantial achievement for a sitting government.

If it becomes apparent the UK is going to deliberately seek a hard, no deal Brexit under a Tory right-winger then I can see a second referendum being demanded before we go off the cliff edge. Its no good afterwards.

I mean look at that map again, even if you dont like the SNP, or Sturgeon, or dont want independence, its clear something has to change, something has to give somewhere the political and social positions between Scotland and the rest of mainland UK is ever widening. And this could not be starker illustrating that.



Sturgeon is going to frame this is a straight forward choice for the people of Scotland. Either we vote for Independence and to remain inside the EU. Or we vote to remain inside the Union but outside the EU and accept whatever Brexit deal the Tories cook up.

Right now I reckon that's a pretty good argument to make and such a binary choice will lend itself to a YES vote. }}